For a Limited Time Only

During her residency, Lea Sorrentino transformed the look and function of the Toy Zone, a well-known Elsewhere landmark. Meticulously separating out toys that originally entered the consumer cycle as happy meal prizes and fast food restaurant giveaways, Sorrentino lovingly cleaned and re-packaged the toys in white gift bags, then re-installed them as an enticing avalanche of mysterious prizes.

Over the course of a week, visitors to the museum who happened upon the temporary installation, grappled with whether to open the prizes and participate in the destruction of the installation, where to place toys and their packaging once opened, and how to make sense of being confronted with a prize whose value as a prize is fleeting. Having opened their prizes, visitors were faced with the feeling of needing to leave them at Elsewhere, since none of the collection can leave the premises.

Sorrentino was driven to create this work through an emotional connection she felt with the happy meal toys around Elsewhere, which reminded her of her childhood. Having witnessed museum visitors exclaim their own childhood memories of the toys, she realized that her ”personal” connection with these mass produced items was not unique. She hoped to highlight these moments of toy-rediscovery and haphazard remembrance in “For a Limited Time Only.”